


the colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky

by keepitdreamin



Category: Psych
Genre: M/M, Synesthesia, idk where this is set in canon (if even) but whatever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-16 06:07:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10565193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keepitdreamin/pseuds/keepitdreamin
Summary: Gus’s laugh is yellow, bright bright sunshine and daisies and golden leaves (Shawn’s bought every new box of crayons and he even worked for a time at the Crayola factory, but he’s never found the color anywhere)





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm rewatching Psych and got this in my head. I really don't know much about synesthesia so if I got something terribly inaccurate let me know! Shawn's manifests as him seeing sounds and textures as colors.

Shawn’s pretty much always known he was different, that he sees things and feels things that other people just _don’t_. It’s fine for a while, it’s like his own kind of superpower even! But well… when he’s 8, he overhears his teacher talking to his parents about how she’s _concerned_ about his “over active imagination,” and he realizes that not everybody _feels_ colors the way he does, but, more importantly, they _don’t like that he does_. Different is no longer _cool_ , it’s _concerning_. So he decides to stop talking about it, pretends just a little bit like he’s a normal kid (well, as normal as he can be with his dad still teaching him to notice _everything_ ). He stops mentioning the fuzzy orangeness of TV static and the dull gray of scratchy clothes, and eventually the grown ups relax.

He tells Gus _sometimes_ , not everything and he never tries to really explain it, just sometimes he mentions the colors. He argues against listening to certain music because “it’s too _orange_.” He, drunk and sleepy, tells Gus that his couch (which is the pristine kind of white that only Gus can maintain) is the best kind of blue. Shows with laugh tracks are just _too_ maroon sometimes. Gus rolls his eyes and laughs but he doesn’t really question it either. Maybe he remembers that time _before_ Shawn stopped talking about it, remembers the colors Shawn used to describe to him, and them making as many different sounds as possible to see what color they are. Maybe not. Maybe Gus is just acclimated to Shawn being _Shawn_.

 

* * *

 

  * Gus’s laugh is yellow, bright bright sunshine and daisies and golden leaves (Shawn’s bought every new box of crayons and he even worked for a time _at_ the Crayola factory, but he’s never found the color anywhere)
  * Raindrops are bright splashes of chartreuse and vermilion and periwinkle, depending on where they land, on the roof or the ground or his skin.
  * Judd Nelson’s voice is smooth purple that made Shawn slightly  _uncomfortable_ throughout the 80s though he could never quite say _why._
  * Violins are fuchsia and pianos are turquoise.
  * Henry is shades of red and white and blue (the irony is _not_ lost on him).
  * His mom is dark dark blue and violet and splashes of orange.
  * Abigail’s laugh is _also_ yellow, and it makes Shawn nervous and giddy. It’s not quite the same shade as Gus’s, but it’s close, and it makes his heart stutter.
  * Chatter on the police scanner is red with the occasional burst of green.
  * Tap dancing usually sounds like jarring chartreuse but… when _Gus_ does it, it’s bright teal and salmon and honey.
  * The sticky bubblegum lipstick the girl he first kissed wore was a dirty muddy brown against his lips and he spent a good few minutes rubbing it off before Gus offered him a yellow lollipop as bright as his laugh
  * The first _boy_ he kisses is also wearing lipstick, a glossy bright yellow that pops on his dark skin and reminds Shawn of another boy and a laugh he hasn’t heard in months. He thinks it might not be a good idea, that he should feel a little guilty for thinking of one boy and kissing another, but the music that’s playing is peach and violet and cream and beige swirling around him making him feel light and full of possibility. The color smears on his lips, becomes little spots of _spring, grass, moss_  that he finds himself leaning in for again and again.
  * His favorite sweater, the too big, too soft one he stole from Gus during one of his brief visits during college (Gus teases sometimes, but he’s never asked for it back), is blue but also a gentle calming green
  * Gunshots are sharp blasts of copper, tinged with blood red
  * Pineapple tastes and smells and feels like every good color rolled into one, like the rainbow of colors on an oil slick. If he could eat nothing but pineapple he would be happy.
  * Bees sound like how the ocean looks, shifting shifting blues and greens (the _ocean_ sounds likes waves of ruby and crimson and scarlet), but flies are an ugly burnt orange
  * His bike’s engine is aqua, but so are fake fake fake laughs
  * Gus’s skin is smooth and soft; years of nearly obsessive application of moisturizers and lotions have guaranteed that. It feels like opal, bright and sparkling and reflecting so many colors, and, if Shawn doesn’t concentrate, he can spend a long time just petting him while he’s caught up in thoughts or they’re watching TV. Gus, for his part, has come to accept this as just another “Shawn thing” and has stopped even acknowledging it. Shawn tries to not let himself get lost in it too often, but he still finds himself touching Gus as often as he can for just a glimpse of that opalescent shimmer.



 

 

* * *

 

 

The first time Shawn kisses Gus (or Gus kisses him, he’s not even sure which way around it happened, just one moment they were laughing and everything was yellow and the next their lips were pressed together) he doesn’t _feel_ like yellow. He feels like _pineapple_ , like a rainbow, like every color combined and doused in iridescence.

When they pull apart, they’re breathing heavy and Gus is looking… wary. Like he’s deciding if he’s going to freak out or if _Shawn_ is going to and how to deal with that. After a moment of silence, Shawn licks his (still tingling) lips. “Pineapple flavored chapstick?” he questions softly and still a little breathless.

The wary look on Gus’s face breaks into a small grin and he huffs out a little laugh _(sunflower yellow)_. “Yeah,” Gus replies, and Shawn is a little proud that he sounds as breathless as Shawn does right now. “You like?”

Shawn runs his tongue over his lips again, chasing the last vestiges of the rainbow and smiles. “I think I need to try it again. You know, for science.” Gus laughs and it’s _yellow yellow yellow_. Shawn kisses him mid laugh and there’s yellow and rainbow and shimmers and everything’s _perfect_.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure how well this formatted as a fic?? but also there's not _enough_ Shawn/Gus fics and I wanted to contribute.
> 
> Come talk to me about the most underappreciated pairing _ever_ on [tumblr!](http://www.keepitdreamin.tumblr.com)


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